It's tax day today in the United States - April 15. This is the day that income taxes are due and a lot of people wait until today to file (we've still got a couple of weeks in Canada, so we get a few extra days to procrastinate).

If you're selling your own products and have a list of some sort, did you use this as an excuse for a sale? If not, why not?

I use every special day I can as a reason to offer a special on my products.

• Tax day
• Any major holiday
• A family member's birthday
• My wedding anniversary
• etc.

Sometimes I'll actually come out and say I'm trying to raise some extra money for something - an anniversary gift for my wife, the money to pay the taxes I owe, or whatever suits the occasion.

You might think this comes across as tacky, but the fact is if you've got a good relationship with your list, they're more willing to help you out than you might think. And if you're offering them a special of some kind and your product is actually worth the money (understand that this is a given as far as I'm concerned - if your product doesn't live up to its billing, none of this stuff is going to help) it's a win-win situation.

Other times I'll just offer it as a special deal because it's Christmas / Mothers' Day / New Years / etc. If there are people on your list who are on the fence about buying it, this can be enough to convince them.

And if you're worried about people seeing these offers regularly and thinking they'll get the next one if they miss it this time, don't worry. If people are on your list that long they're either not going to buy, or one of those offers you send them will come at just the right time to get them to buy.

You never know what's going to push the right buttons at the right time, so just keep trying.